Metropolitan Medical Center- College of Arts, Science and Technology

Radiation Production and Characteristics

Prepared by: Go, F.J.M.

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DEFINITION OF TERMS
Radiation
 Energy emitted and transferred through matter.
Electromagnetic Radiation
 Oscillating electric and magnetic fields that travel in a vacuum with the velocity of light.
 Includes x-rays, gamma rays, and some non- ionizing radiation (such as ultraviolet, visible,
infrared, and radio waves).
Electromagnetic Energy
 Type of energy in x-rays, radio waves, microwaves, and visible light.
Electromagnetic spectrum
 Continuum of electromagnetic energy
 It is the range of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths
and photon energies.
Photons
 The smallest quantity of any type of electromagnetic energy
 It may be pictured as quantum
 Waveform: sinusoidal fashion

ELCTROMAGNETIC ENERGY

 Characteristics:
 It consists of vibrations in electric and magnetic fields.
 It has no charge and no mass
 It travels at the speed of light.
 The waves move in a sinusoidal (sine) waveform in electric and magnetic fields.
 Properties of electromagnetic energy:
 Velocity: how fast the radiation moves
 Frequency: how many cycles per second are in the wave
 Period: the time for one complete cycle
 Wavelength: the distance between corresponding parts of the wave
 Amplitude: the magnitude of the wave
 Energy: the amount of energy in the wave
 Intensity: the flux of energy

Velocity
  c: speed of light
 Constant SI Unit: 3 x 108 m/s

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 Constant British Unit: 186,000 mi/s
 Travels at speed of light: 3 × 108 m/s (186,000 miles/s)
Frequency (f)

 It is the number of cycles per second.

 It is the number of peaks or valleys occurring each second.
 Unit: Hertz (Hz) or one cycle per second.
 It is inversely proportional to the wavelength.

Period
 It is the time required for one complete cycle.
 Cycle: one completion of the wave form before it repeats itself.
Wavelength (λ)

 Distance from one crest to another

 Distance from one valley to another
 Distance from one point on the sine wave to the next corresponding point
 Unit: Lambda (λ)
 Inversely proportional to the frequency

Wave Equation

 Formulas: λ = c/f; v = fλ; f = c/λ

 c: velocity of light
 These are used for both sound & electromagnetic energy

Electromagnetic Wave Equation

 Formula: c = fλ
 For electromagnetic energy, frequency & wavelength are inversely proportional

Amplitude

 Height
 One-half range from crest and valley over which the sine waves varies.
 The width of a waveform
 It is not related to wavelength or frequency
 It relates to the intensity of the x-ray beam.
 Energy of wave and height of wave increases.

Wave-Particle Duality
  Electromagnetic radiation usually acts as a wave, but sometimes it acts as a particle.

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 As a wave:
- It has a definite frequency, period, and wavelength.
 As a particle:
- It has a photon or quanta.
- nbPhoton: bundles of energy to produce x-radiation.
Energy
 Planck’s formula
- Max Planck hypothesized that the energy in the shells of atoms is found
only in discrete packets called quanta.
- E=hf where E is photon energy in electron volts, h is a conversion factor
called Planck’s constant (4.15 × 10−15 eVs), and f is the photon frequency.
 Derivation from Planck’s formula
- Planck’s formula could be written to indicate that the wavelength of an
electromagnetic wave, such as and x-ray, is inversely proportional to its
energy
- E = h/ λ
Radiation Intensity
 It is the energy flow per second and is measured in watts/ cm2.
 The intensity of the radiation decreases with an increase in the distance from the source.
 Inverse square law: describe the beam intensity as inversely proportional to the square of
the distance.


ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
 Measurement of the Electromagnetic Spectrum
 - Three Scales: energy (eV), frequency (Hz) & wavelength (λ)

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 Three Regions Important to Radiologic Science
1. Visible light Region: viewing condition of a radiographic & fluoroscopic images
are critical to diagnosis
2. X-ray Region: fundamental to producing a high quality radiograph
3. Radiofrequency Region: with the introduction of MRI, become more important in
medical imaging
4. Others: UV light, infrared light, & microwave radiation

Radiofrequency

- Range: 0.3 kHz-300 GHz

- Range in MRI: 1-100 mHz
- Low energy & long wavelength

Microwave

- Very-short wavelength RF 
- Higher than broadcast RF 
- Lower than infrared 

Infrared

- Longer λ than visible light

- Shorter λ than microwaves
- It heats any substance on which it shines (radiant heat)

Visible Light

- It occupies the smallest segment of electromagnetic spectrum

- It is described in terms of wavelength
- Range: 400 nm (violet) to 700 nm (red)

UV Light

- It causes sunburn
- Lies between visible light & ionizing radiation

X-rays

- It is emitted from the electron cloud

- It is produced in diagnostic imaging systems.

Gamma Rays
 - It comes from inside the nucleus of radioactive atom

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- It is emitted spontaneously from radioactive . material

ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY ATTENUATION

 The reduction in intensity that results from scattering & absorption

 ABSORPTION: Transfer of energy from an electromagnetic field to matter.
 SCATERRING: The process in which electromagnetic radiation or particles are
deflected or diffused.

Interaction Between Light & Absorbing Material

 Transparency
- Not at all (transmission)
- e.g. window glass
 Translucency
- Partially (attenuation)
- e.g. frosted glass
 Opacity
- Completely (absorption)
- e.g. black glass

Interaction between X-ray and Absorbing material

 Radiopaque
- The structures that absorb x-rays e.g. bones
 Radiolucent
- The structures that transmit x-rays
- e.g. Lung tissue